He then climbed down from his palm tree and removed the soil with his hands until he had uncovered the chest and freed it from the hole. With a big stone he struck and broke its lock and, after lifting the lid, he looked inside. There he saw a girl in a drugged sleep, with her breast rising and falling as she breathed. She was very beautiful, and was wearing ornaments, gold jewellery and jewelled necklaces, priceless stuff worth a sultan’s kingdom.
-1001 Nights
This variation on the Sleeping Beauty theme provides a good way to fill out a treasure chest. Inside the maiden’s mouth is a pill: if it is removed, she will wake up. She is a princess, kidnapped and held for ransom, but her kidnappers are long dead. She has been sleeping in the chest for thousands of years. She would have been worth a fortune in reward money a few thousand years ago; but the last of her line is long gone. At least she comes with jewelry.
For extra fun, the PCs are following an ancient rumor that, somewhere in the dungeon, there is a beautiful gem of great mystic power. She is it. The princess was known, in her day, as the Jacinth of Inestimable Beauty. She is a powerful enchantress. Too bad her spell books have been dust for centuries.
Also of note about the princess in the chest: a PC’s innocent question “How big is the chest?” led to a hilarious misunderstanding that ended with the party demanding that I rolled for the princess’s breast size. They were outraged that there was no chart for this in OD&D. I rolled a d6 and got a 2. The girls in the group informed me that that was a B cup.I used this gimmick in my last OD&D dungeon crawl. The PCs discovered the sleeping pill in the princess’s mouth when their chaste kisses failed to wake her and they resorted to french kissing.
Although Jacinth was a high-level magic-user, she was useless to the first-level party because both the party elves had randomly rolled “Read Magic” and “Comprehend Languages” as their two spells. Because she was a princess and a magic-user, she wouldn’t engage in physical combat. The pill that grants immortal sleep was actually the most useful part of the treasure.
Tags: everybook
Although Jacinth was a high-level magic-user, she was useless to the first-level party because both the party elves had randomly rolled “Read Magic” and “Comprehend Languages” as their two spells.
I don’t understand…
I didn’t find any rules about how magic-users pick spells, so I had the elves start with two randomly-rolled spells. Both elf PCs rolled exactly the same spells. Since the wizard NPC didn’t have a spellbook, one of the elves shared his – which meant that we now had 3 spellcasters who could all cast “Read Magic” and “Comprehend Languages”.
Later, the party found a spellbook with useful spells in it, but by that time, no one trusted Jacinth (due to a misadventure with the party loot).
“They were outraged that there was no chart for this in OD&D.”
There’s one in Ready Ref Sheets from Judges Guild.
The illustration in the sidebar here is really making me think about the creepy gender politics of putting a girl in a box and then french kissing her and evaluating her cup size, but as I think someone (Paul?) pointed out at the time, creepy gender politics (and creepy charts) are an important part of a classic D&D experience!
Oh good, Jeff, I was thinking I was going to have to turn to F.A.T.A.L.
I love the flavor of this, thanks for the post
@Claire I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking it.
The idea really intrigues me though. There are a lot of elements to it which I’d never considered.
[…] Princess in a Treasure Chest: A great idea for, well, pretty much what the title says. Put a princess in a treasure chest. I like that this encourages the DM to think outside the box for what to put in a treasure chest. (pun intended). […]
Can I just say I love everything about this idea, from the basic concept to your players’ reactions to it!
Creepy gender politics aside, of course.
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